The wilderness is also a place for spiritual renewal. Hagar (Gen. 16.7; 21.19), Moses (Exod. 3.1–4.17), and Elijah (1 Kings 19) flee there and meet God. Jesus similarly seeks solitude in the desert (Matt. 4.1 par.; Mark 1.35 par.; Luke 5.16; John 11.54). The wilderness is above all associated with the wanderings of Israel narrated in Exodus‐Deuteronomy. Most texts recall
this as a time of tension between God and his people (Exod. 15.22–26; 16; 32; Lev. 10; Num. 11–14; 16–17; 20.1–13; 21.4–9, Deut. 1.19–46; 6.16; 9.7–10.11; Jer. 7.24–26; Ezek. 20; Pss. 78; 106; Neh. 9; Acts 7.39–43; 1 Cor. 10.5–12; Heb. 3–4), but Jeremiah 2.2–3 and Hosea 2.15 idealize it as a time of piety. Some sources maintain that God simply found Israel in the desert and brought them to the
land (Deut. 32.10; Ezek. 16; Hos. 9.10), apparently ignoring the Exodus proper. It was in this wilderness, at Mount Sinai/Horeb, that God entered into a covenant with Israel (Exod. 19.1 – Num. 10.10), a covenant reaffirmed on the wilderness borders of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy).

Nostalgia for desert life and the negative associations of the wilderness are, ironically, compatible. Israel is forced to
rely upon God in the most inhospitable of climates, and God shows his power to sustain them (Exod. 16; 17.1–7; Num. 11; Deut. 8.3–4, 15–16; 29.5–6; Ps. 78.19–20, 23–29; 1 Cor. 10.3–4); just as Jesus feeds the multitudes in the desert (Mark 6.30–44; 8:1–10; par.). The desert is also God's crucible, in which he tests Israel (Exod. 15.25–26; Deut. 8.2–3, 5, 16; 33.8) and eliminates the unwanted.

The Qumran community conceived of itself as fulfilling the call of Isaiah 40.3 (1QS 8.13–14; 9.19–20), to make a way in the desert in preparation for a national rebirth. John the Baptist was viewed in the same light (Matt. 3.3 par.; John 1.23). The tradition of desert monasteries continues to this day.